Cucumbers Galore!

Recently the community garden has been flush with cucumbers. Plus my own gardens are pumping out far too many cukes too. Must be the combination of summertime and lots of rain. There have been so many cukes in the community garden that the volunteers aren't taking them all. So what to do with the glut of cucumbers? There's no way I can throw them up into the compost! 

Hubby doesn't like cucumbers all that much. So only a small amount ends up in his salads and stir fries (yes, they are good cooked), not enough to make a dent in the harvest. I'm a pickle lover, so I've made a few jars of pickles, enough to last me a long time. Humm....still too many cukes. There's lots of recipes for using cucumbers, but again, hubby's not fond of them. 

I've resorted to making some cucumber dishes for trading purposes. Some pickles, of course. Some cucumber salad and cucumber salad dressing for a friend who supplies me with goat milk. 

I recently discovered that I like a cucumber smoothie, much like cold cucumber soup. Blend up a juicy, very ripe cuke along with some yogurt, dill, onion or garlic chives. Yum. I made one using mint and basil instead of dill and chives. Yum. Sometimes I add a bit of milk so that it blends easier, other times it's ice cubes. I'm getting hooked on these for breakfasts. 

One of the community garden volunteers makes cucumber ice cream. It's sounds weird, but it is really good tasting. Everybody loves it. 

I still had an excess. I gave some to a veggie seller at the farmers market. I took a pile to the senior center to hand out. Any that have blemishes I'm feeding to the rabbits. They greedily love them. So at last, none have to become compost. At least somebody benefits from them. 

The bummer is that the cuke vines have stopped flowering for now. So shortly I'm going to be in the opposite situation, cukeless. Looks like it's either feast or famine.